Rawls College News

Doctoral Student Set to Publish in Journal of Business Research

Dr. KT Manis, a 2018 graduate of Texas Tech's Hospitality Administration program and
current Rawls College of Business doctoral student in the area of marketing, recently
had a research paper accepted for publication by the Journal of Business Research.

Established in 1973, the Journal of Business Research is a monthly, peer-reviewed
academic journal that covers all aspects of business research. Utilized by business
executives, researchers, and scholars alike, the journal aims to help connect empirical
research to practical situations and theoretical findings to the reality of the business
world.

Manis' article titled, "The Virtual Reality Hardware Acceptance Model (VR-HAM): Extending
and Individuating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for Virtual Reality Hardware
Acceptance," examines the challenges concerning the future of virtual reality hardware
as related to content creation, consumer acceptance, and return on investment. Due
to the broad audience of the journal's readership, Manis believes his research article
has the potential to impact multiple disciplines and research areas related to virtual
reality.

"Virtual reality is still an emerging technology as evidenced by the low adoption
rate among consumers," said Manis. "While there is great potential for the future,
the technology is still being refined to provide more practical uses to both firms
and consumers. This article will attract a variety of readers with interests from
innovation adoption and the early adoption period to consumer curiosity."

The paper is co-authored by Dr. Danny Choi, Assistant Professor of Hospitality & Retailing
Management in the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech University. Manis began
working with Choi in August of 2017 while he was working on his Ph.D. in Hospitality
Administration.

"The experiments related to this journal article provided an opportunity to bridge
my interested in technology adoption research with his interests in tourism research,"
said Manis. "Now that we have collected data, we plan to continue working together
to submit manuscripts to other journals."

Manis said the publication of this article is a giant first step in his academic career.
"It is significant because it is my first publication, it provides creditability to
my research, and it substantiates opportunities for future research."

Manis plans to continue publishing and working with faculty in the Rawls College of
Business to advance his marketing knowledge. Upon graduation, Manis would like to
pursue a tenure-track faculty position at a top-tier research institution.

The article will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Business Research
titled, "Virtual Reality in Marketing: Emerging Opportunities in Research and Practice."
A release date has not been set at this time.